Canada bans Charles Dutoit’s name from radio
mainArthur Kapitanis quotes a CBC spokesperson:
‘As you know, the recordings of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra make up an important part of our Canadian classical repertoire on CBC Radio Two.
‘While the allegations made towards Charles Dutoit are serious, we truly believe that removing these recordings entirely from our broadcasts would unjustly diminish the efforts of the many talented musicians who are featured in them. At this point, we are no longer crediting Mr. Dutoit as conductor.’
See also: Charles Dutoit is accused of rape.
If the CBC do not include the fine OSM recordings from years ago they wouldn’t have much left of quality to play.
Cancon rules must go! More BPO LSO VP CBSO RPO etc,etc,etc………
How idiotic. Imagine Mahler’s record with the ladies hitting the fan…and headlines.
The concert world would be unable to cope. To think that only ha ha Nazi musicians were until very recently thought evil, beyond the pale, not box office.
The turkeys are now coming home to roost. Let us give them a welderful wuncum.
Imagine if you were (say) principal flute on a Montreal/Dutoit recording of “Daphnis and Chloe”, in which you feel you played quite beautifully and in which you take great pride? And now this document, through no fault of your own, has been banished into a Stalinist memory hole? I don’t care how much of a monster Dutoit is (I’ve played under him, and I found him rather odious even before these allegations), this is just wrong.
Please read the post. They will still play the recordings, they only won’t mention the conductor.
Maybe they will say (as I believe they should for most OSM recordings) “That was Timothy Hutchins, flutist, in his classic recording with the Montreal Symphony.”
You are right. I would have deleted my comment after reading it more carefully if it were possible.
I just listened to a Dutoit recording and had to shower twice. Yet I still feel dirty… actually, just kidding. So glad not to live in among the PC morons of Montreal. Will they mention the names of Nazis such as Schwarzkopf, Karajan and others? [redacted: defamation] Percy Grainger was into S&M. Is he unmentionable? Is Levine banned?
Stalinism 2.0.We have definitely arrived in the age of idiocy.
so your favorite world famous, powerful conductor acted in a most un-gentlemany way, not just according to gossip now but through public accounts by real people.
so everyone who thinks grabbing/forcing oneself onto/harassing women is despicable, according to you, all these people are stalinist idiots?
so… i’m sorry, who the hell are you?
First,innocent till proven guilty.
Second,if this idiocy goes on,we can “clean”our libraries,galleries,stages,museums,etc.of 75%of ist riches,because of morally questionable artiists.Art is not a school of behaviour.
Wherever you stand on this side of the argument it’s surely farcical to omit the name of the conductor unless this is supposed to rectify past sins of putting them on an absurd god-like pedestal.
Stalin used to have purged people erased from photographs. History is history. If Dutoit conducted something, people who listen to it should be allowed to know that he conducted it. That doesn’t condone his behavior, it just tells the truth that he conducted the piece that’s being played.
Exactly. You can’t erase what’s done. As a librarian and archivist, this notion boggles my mind (and makes me very angry).
Just plain stupid. Shame on them.
I in no way condone what we have ben told are Dutoit’s actions. But omitting his name as conductor of recordings is childishly idiotic. If they do not want his name mentioned, they should simply decide not to play any of his recordings. And that would be even more idiotic. As others have mentioned, I assume this broadcasting company will now delete the names of Nazis like von Karajan.
I hope they stop mentioning Furtwangler, Bohm and Karajan.
Well, yes….it’s potentially endless.
Klemperer, Gendron, Feldman, Celibidache….so many troubling accusations about classical musicians.
This is some Soviet-style surreal nonsense – the Russkies did this to the recordings of the musicians who left the USSR. What’s next, destroying the recordings completely ?
If we are going to eliminate all the sinners….we will remain only with the recordings of Mother Teresa!
Spot on,Elvira.
Strictly speaking, Mother Theresa is among the more reprehensible figures. Eventually that casual turn of phrase will be consigned to the dustbin!
As I have already said, this kind of reactions threaten to transform a very serious and tragic issue into a farce. It also, unnecessarily, plays into the hand of the deniers.
Typically Goebelsian decision. Canada is going through a very serious crisis these days.
I shouldn’t say Canada is going through a crisis, certainly not compared with many other Western countries. But, having lived here for forty years, I should say that it is a rather peculiar country, many of its institutions so odd I find them creepy, and far from fitting the image so many people elsewhere have of it. It is emphatically not a defence of Dutoit to say that the CBCs decision is typically weird. It reminds me of an antithetical event and the response to it — Glenn Gould’s death. On that occasion, a recital hall was named for this man who hated concerts. And a piano competition for this man who loathed competitions. Typical perversity. The populace is generally decent and nice, but passive and hardly notices what goes on. But the Establishment…that’s another matter altogether.
Under international law, Charles Dutoit has the moral right (‘droit morale’) to be identified as the conductor of his recordings in all public transmissions. Performances and Phonograms Treaty of 1996, administered by the World Intellectual Property Organisation. This is a right fully implemented, indeed championed by, Canada in its national law. He can only lose this right by death.
Good for the CBC – we don’t need to celebrate a rapist. It’s sad and a little scary that so many commenters here feel sexual assault doesn’t matter. Makes you wonder about the state of the classical music audience.
We don’t actually know whether he is a rapist. He should get credit for his recordings. People assume so many things, and go along with the crowd like PC sheep. Maybe you are a rapist. There is no way we could know. Be fair.
He Who Must Not Be Named.
Curiouser and curiouser.
We are now officially through the looking glass.
Decca has purged Dutoit’s name from its catalogue, according to the Montreal Gazette story, but is continuing to list the vile anti-Semite Ernest Ansermet.
Huh.
This is completely outrageous. He should sue them, but so should the listeners. This censorship over gossip has got to be stopped!